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CHAPTER2
SADIE
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”Warmth spreads into my cheeks at the sound of his deep voice.
My mom might have been right. This new school is going to be a fresh new start for me. Especially when the hottest boy or maybe man I’ve ever seen compliments me. This move is already better. I was dreading it, but nothing could be worse than my last school. I was happy to be closing that chapter in my life.
“Thanks,” I manage to get out.
“What’s your name?” His voice is gruff. The question almost sounds like a demand rather than a request.
“Sadie.” I hold my hand out to him.
“Dunc.” He responds by taking it. I swear I feel a spark when we make contact, but I’m probably imagining it. Surprisingly, his hold on me is gentle, but his hand is rough. The texture makes my skin break out in goosebumps. My breath hitches. What is happening to me?
An arm drops down around my shoulder before I can process the reaction I’m having. I don’t have to look to know who it is.
“We got a problem?” Van, my brother, asks.
“Why would there be a problem?” I chirp, wanting to be chipper so Van knows not to scare Dunc away. But when I glance over at him, I can see that’s his mission.
My brother has always been protective of me. But once I started getting bullied in my old high school, it really went full throttle. I don’t think my brother knows that some of that bullying was because of him. And I would never speak those words out loud because it wasn’t his fault.
Van was always popular but not by choice. Some of my friends were never evenmyfriends. They only came over to try and get his attention. He never gave it to them. Which would bother the crap out of them. That was the beginning of the bullying—them taking out his rejection of them on me.
Then people found out we weren’t truly brother and sister in the DNA way, and that Van’s mother and my father were really just best friends. Our parents actually met when my dad came to find me after finding out my mother had given birth to me. His daughter. She wanted him to sign away his rights, but my dad wouldn’t. Van’s mom, Fischl, had been in the same predicament. Only she wouldn’t sign hers over.
They never told us all of the story, but the two of them formed a bond. One my dad used to make my grandparents chill out about him getting married because we all know he’s gay. Now Van’s mom and my dad pretend to be a thing to the rest of the world. My dad comes from a very wealthy background. Our last name is known to most of the world.
But Fischl isn’t just Van’s mom. I don’t care what anyone says. Fischl has been my mom my whole life. And Van is my brother. Nothing more. The girls at my old school couldn’t get past Van shutting them down, so they started to spread gossip that Van and I were secretly a thing.
Vomit.
I mean, Van is handsome, but so is my dad. The only love I have for my brother is a family one. He feels the same. Van is just super protective. It’s almost a chip I think he carries on his shoulder because his biological dad dropped off the planet. I think. Mom doesn’t talk about it.
“You sure about that?” Van asks. Both he and Dunc glare at each other.
“Get to your next classes,” the teacher calls out.
“This is our class.” Van responds. “She must be talking to you, pretty boy. Move along.”
“Van!” I hiss, hitting him in the chest. I swear I want a hole to open up in the floor and swallow me. I can’t believe my brother just embarrassed me in front of the hottest guy on the planet. Scratch that. I can totally believe it.
“Fuck off.” Dunc walks past him but not before shoulder-checking him, making Van’s arm fall off my shoulder. I grab a hold of my brother's shirt before he can try to go after him.
“New school,” I remind him. “Be nice.” That’s the excuse I use, but that’s not the true reason I want Van to back off.
“He was eye-fucking you,” Van says bluntly. If any of my blush had started to fade, it is surely back now.
“And what’s wrong with that?” I put my hands on my hips. My frustration with what just happened is evident.
“Fucking Christ.” Van runs his hand down his face.
“What?” One of these days Van is going to realize that I’m not a little girl anymore. That I don’t always need protecting.
“I know a dick when I see one.”
“What?!” How the hell could he have come to that conclusion when they barely said two words to each other? Actually, I don’t think Dunc said any. “Takes one to know one?”
